Tony Blair among recipients of $1m. Dan David Prizes

AIDS co-discoverer and Italiancosmologist also to receive prize.

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
tony blair 298 88 ap (photo credit: AP [file])
tony blair 298 88 ap
(photo credit: AP [file])
Middle East Quartet envoy Tony Blair, AIDS virus co-discoverer Prof. Robert Gallo and Prof. Paulo de Bernardis, a leading physicist at the University La Sapienza in Rome, will each receive $1 million on Sunday as winners of the Dan David Prize at Tel Aviv University. De Bernardis, an experimental astrophysicist, will be cited for his contribution for the "Past Time Dimension in the Field of Cosmology"; Blair for his contribution in the "Present Time Dimension in the field of Leadership"; and Gallo in the "Future Time Dimension in the field of Global Public Health." President Shimon Peres will present the prizes on campus along with Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar, Dan David, who established the prize, and TAU president Prof. Zvi Galil, who is also chairman of the board of the Dan David Prize foundation. The 2009 Dan David Prize laureates were chosen by independent review committees comprised of renowned scholars and professionals in the chosen fields (some of them Nobel Prize winners) and from the international business community. The prize has been awarded since 2002 to individuals or institutions with proven, exceptional and distinct excellence in the sciences, arts and humanities who have made an outstanding contribution to humanity, in each of the three time dimensions. As in past years, the laureates donated 10 percent of their prize money to outstanding doctoral and post doctoral students in the chosen fields. The 10 scholarships, worth $15,000 each, will be awarded to doctoral and post-doctoral students at TAU. Scholarship recipients will join the Scholars Forum on the Dan David Prize Web site, providing an opportunity for exchange of ideas and dialogue on topics of interest.